The invention relates to editing video on a nonlinear video editing system.
Nonlinear video editing systems typically receive analog or digital video from a video tape recorder, digitize and compress the video, and store the compressed digital video on local storage for random access during creation and assembling of a video program. The stored digital video data available to such systems are typically limited by the amount of available local storage.
In one general aspect, the invention features an apparatus for editing video which has at least two components: a digital database system and a nonlinear video editor. The digital database system stores source video segments and has the capability to decimate the source video segments into decimated video segments of a selected decimation quality. The nonlinear video editor is connected so as to selectively access decimated video segments and source video segments from the digital database system. The nonlinear video editor is capable of using the decimated video segments during editing of a program and then producing the program.
In another general aspect, the invention features an apparatus for editing video which has at least two components: a remote digital database system storing remote source video segments and a local nonlinear video editor. Both of these components are configured for connection to a network. The local nonlinear video editor has local storage for local source video segments and the capability to access the remote source video segments from the digital database system. The local nonlinear video editor also displays video segment identifiers for the segments being included in a video program, the identifiers indicating whether the video segments included in the program are remote source video segments or local source video segments.
In yet another general aspect, the invention features an apparatus for editing video which has at least two components: a remote digital database system storing remote source video segments and a local nonlinear video editor. Both of these components are configured for connection to a network. The nonlinear video editor has local storage for local source video segments and the ability to access the remote source video segments from the digital database system. The nonlinear video editor displays video segment identifiers for video segments being included in a video program substantially simultaneously with displaying a search mechanism for searching the remote source video segments for selection for inclusion in the program.
In still another aspect, the invention features an apparatus for editing video which has at least two components: a remote digital database system storing source video segments and a local nonlinear video editor. The digital database system and nonlinear video editor are connected to a network. The local nonlinear video editor is connected so as to selectively access the source video segments from the digital database system by transmitting over the network information identifying the selected source video segment to the digital database manager. The database system, in response, transmits over the same network the selected source video segment to the nonlinear video editor.
In yet another general aspect, the invention features an apparatus including a digital database system and a nonlinear media editor. The digital database system which stores source audio segments and has the capability to resample, at a selected resampled quality, the stored audio segments into resampled audio segments. The nonlinear media editor, which may be a nonlinear video and/or audio editor, is connected so as to selectively access the resampled audio segments and source audio segments from the digital database system and is capable of using the resampled audio segments during editing of a media program and producing the media program.
In another general aspect, the invention features an apparatus for editing video including a remote digital database system and a local computer, being configured for connection to the network, and operating a nonlinear video editing application. The remote digital database system stores source video segments and is configured for connection to a network. The nonlinear video editing application is capable of supplying the remote digital database system with a selected criterion for searching the digital database system and using results of the search during editing and producing of the program.
Certain implementations of the invention include one or more of the following features.
A user searches the digital database system to find source audio and video segments which the user then may use in editing a video program. The user is provided with various displays for inputting the search criteria to be used for searching the digital database, reviewing and importing audio and video segments found during the search, and editing of a video program incorporating some of those found audio and video segments.
The nonlinear video editor displays video segment identifiers in a video program editing region (e.g., a graphical user interface window), where the video program editing region is used for editing the program. The program editing region may include a video time line indicator. The nonlinear video editor can use one or more channels of video and display video segment tracks in the program editing region corresponding to those channels of video. The nonlinear video editor can also use one or more channels of audio and display audio segment tracks in the program editing region corresponding to those channels of audio.
The nonlinear video editor displays a digital database system selection region (e.g., a graphical user interface window) for selecting a digital system from among a plurality of digital database systems.
The nonlinear video editor displays a database search region (e.g., a graphical user interface window) for inputting search criteria for searching the digital database system and displaying a search result indicator. The search result indicator can include an indication of the number of source video segments, stored on the digital database system, which were found during the search.
The nonlinear video editor displays a found remote source video segments region (e.g., a graphical user interface window) for displaying video segment indicators for remote source video segments found in a search performed by the digital database system. A video identifier can be a frame from a corresponding found remote source video segment found in the search.
The results (e.g. segment identifiers for video segments found in the search) of a search performed by the digital database system may be imported from the digital database system into the nonlinear video editor and placed in a bin. Also, a source video segment found in a search may be sent by the digital database system to the nonlinear video editor and be incorporated directly in a video program, for example, at a pre-selected point in the time line of the program.
Prior to transmitting a found video segment, the video segment may be decimated and the user may use the decimated video segment to edit the video program. The digital database system therefore may include a decimation module for decimating the decompressed video segment. Decimating the source video segments includes at least one of temporally decimating, spatially decimating, or compressing the source video segments.
The digital database system transfers decimated video segments over the network, at a requested decimation quality, to the nonlinear video editor, for example, after performing a search. Note that a decimation quality includes a quality of a non-decimated video. The nonlinear video editor receives the decimated video segment and represents the decimated video in the bin or represents the decimated video segment on a time line of the program on the display (or in a video program editing region on the display).
The user can edit a video program using the decimated video segments. The nonlinear video editor is capable of editing a plurality of source video segments some of which are stored on a remote digital database system and some of which are stored on the local computer on which the nonlinear video editor is implemented. The nonlinear video may visually represent those source video segments which are stored on the remote digital database system differently than those stored on the local computer. For example the nonlinear video may represent the source video segments stored on the digital database system by a different color or symbol on the display of the nonlinear video editor than the source video segment stored on the local computer.
During editing the program, the nonlinear video editor produces a list of commands and uses the list of commands to produce the final program using local and remote source video segments. After editing and during producing the video program, the nonlinear editor accesses the source video segments (whether local or remote) and produces the finalized video program.
As part of accessing the source video segments, the nonlinear video editor is capable of selecting a portion of a decimated video segment and accessing a portion of the source video segment corresponding to the portion of the decimated video segment. The nonlinear video editor can access a specific portion of the source video segment by transmitting over the network information identifying that portion of the decimated video segment or the corresponding portion of the selected source video segment to the digital database system. Information identifying the desired portion may be a relative video segment start time and a relative video segment end time. The nonlinear editor can transmit these relative start and end times to the digital database system, in which case the digital database system uses them to determine a portion of the source video segment that corresponds to the specific portion requested by the nonlinear video editor. The digital database system then transmits that portion of the source video segment to the nonlinear video editor.
In some implementations, the nonlinear video editor and the digital database system may be implemented on the same computer. In other implementations, the nonlinear video editor may be implemented on a local computer. The digital database system may located in a remote location and store the source video segments remotely. The nonlinear video editor and digital database system may then be connected to a network for communicating with one another.
In some implementations, the communication between the local nonlinear video editor and the remote digital database system take place over the same network. That is, for example, instead of two networks, where one is used for video data and the other is used for control data, the same network is used for transmitting both types of data. The network may be characterized by, for example, being implemented by a collection of data lines and network components for transmitting both video and control data, where the same data lines and network components may be used by the local nonlinear video editor and remote digital database system to transmit both video and control data.
The remote digital database system may store remote source audio segments remotely and the local nonlinear video editor may have local storage for local source audio segments and the ability to access the remote source audio segments from the digital database system. The local nonlinear video editor may display on the display audio segment identifiers for audio segments being included in a video program simultaneously with displaying a search mechanism for searching the remote source audio segments for selection for inclusion in the program.
In some implementations, the digital database system which stores source audio segments and has the capability to resample, at a selected resampled quality, the stored audio segments into resampled audio segments. The nonlinear editor, which may be a nonlinear video and/or audio editor, may be capable of accessing all or part of the source audio segments to produce the program at a second selected resampled quality, which may be the same or different than the first-mentioned selected resampled quality.
In certain implementations, the digital database system stores the source video segments as compressed video segments. The digital database system may include a decompression module for decompressing a compressed source video segment.
Embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the following advantages.
By allowing a user of a nonlinear video editor to have access to a remote digital database, the invention allows the user to access large libraries of source audio and video segments (or clips). Therefore, the user need not be limited by the storage capability of the computer running the nonlinear video editor application or by the collection of source video segments present on that computer (or local external storage devices attachable to that computer). Also, many users can have access to a particular library (i.e. database).
Decimating the video prior to transmitting it allows the invention to optimize, in a variety of ways, the process of storing and transmitting video across a network. Decimating the video for transmission allows adjusting the decimation quality to meet the requirements set by user preferences, network limitations, or the nonlinear editor""s local limitations. At the same time, in certain circumstances, since the video is decimated prior to transmission, any compression technique used for storing the video segments need not be optimized for transmitting the video across the network but can instead be optimized for optimal storage (e.g. optimized for storing high quality video).
The invention allows using decimated video segments for editing a video program and then retrieving the video segments at a different decimation quality (which includes no decimation at all for the data retrieved for the final program, not for the video segments retrieved for editing, which have a reduced amount of data with respect to the stored video segments) to produce the final program. Therefore, if video segments are to be retrieved at a higher quality, only those video segments that are actually used in the final program need be retrieved. Moreover, the video segment can be retrieved at off-peak times, so as not to. overburden the network during peak hours (e.g. 8 am-6 pm). Moreover, the invention allows retrieving only those portions of the video segments that are to be included in the program, rather than retrieving the video segments in their entirety. This further reduces the burden on the network.
The invention allows using the same network for both command and video data. Therefore, no additional network needs to be installed to implement the invention.